§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many businesses are involved in smoking and curing meat and fish products.
§ Mr. MacleanThe smoking and curing of meat and fish is mainly undertaken by businesses in two industries: activity heading 4122—bacon curing and meat products; and activity heading 4150—fish products. There are 822 local units recorded in the former of these industries and 354 in the latter, but only a small proportion of these units are known to undertake smoking or curing.
§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many people are employed in the smoked meat and fish industry; and what estimates have been made of the effect on employment of the implementation of the Food Hygiene (Amendment) Regulations.
§ Mr. MacleanThe smoking and curing of meat and fish is mainly undertaken by businesses in two industries: activity heading 4122—bacon curing and meat products; and activity heading 4150—fish products. It is estimated that there are about 53,000 persons employed in the former of these industries and 17,000 in the latter. Only a very small proportion of these are known to be involved in smoking or curing. Temperature controls are necessary to ensure the safety of certain foods as they reach the consumer. Where the processing of the food or the method of packaging can be shown to prevent the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms at ambient temperatures chill controls are not required. Industry will itself want to consider how its products can meet these food safety demands.
§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the estimate of how much smoked meat and fish is delivered by post each year.
§ Mr. MacleanThe information is not available.